The British Parliament passed a law granting independence in July 1947. The law gave people only one month to decide which country they wanted to live in and to move there. As millions of people began to move, more violence broke out.
Calderas form when an enormous magma chamber under, what was probably a pretty ginormous volcano, empties and collapses, causing the land above it to collapse as well. An explosive caldera-forming eruption has never been witnessed first hand, but we know that they should pretty fearsome spectacles. Much smaller calderas atop effusive volcanoes (hawaiian style) have been observed. So, formation: maars form when a vent intersects groundwater and blasts out the overlying material.
Vesuvius has erupted about three dozen times since 79 A.D., most recently from 1913-1944. The 1913-1944 eruption is thought to be the end of an eruptive cycle that began in 1631. It has not erupted since then, but Vesuvius is an active volcano, it will erupt again. The oldest dated rock at Mt Vesuvius is about 300,000 years old. It was collected from a well drilled near the volcano.